Running Scared, page 30
Snapping his gaze off his son and Lexi, Theo grinned as he put his arm around her and pulled her to him. ‘None whatsoever, darlin’,’ he said truthfully before planting a soft kiss on her lips.
‘Pack it in,’ she chided, pulling away. ‘You’re getting me all worked up.’
‘Save it for later.’ He winked. ‘I’ve booked us a table at Giuseppe’s for nine, then we’re gonna go back to the hotel and get wasted.’
‘As long as you can still get up in the morning,’ Debs said. ‘The flight’s at eight, but we need to check in by six. Which reminds me, I’ve got to nip over and say bye to Six before we go.’
‘Poor fucker.’ Theo shook his head. ‘Who’d have thought getting stabbed in the neck could paralyse you?’
‘Hey, don’t be feeling sorry for him,’ said Debs. ‘He’s a fighter, so there’s every chance he’ll beat the odds and walk again. And, in the meantime, he’s quite happy being pampered by his biker ladies – especially Lydia. You should see the way his eyes light up when she walks into the room. She’s definitely the one that got away, and now they’re back in touch, I’ve got a feeling I’ll be needing to buy a hat before too long.’
‘Sack the hat, get them to fly over and get hitched on the beach near our place,’ Theo said.
‘Our place?’ Debs gave him a questioning look.
‘Yep.’ Theo grinned. ‘Got the call this morning while you were in the shower. Deal’s done. We can pick the keys up when we land.’
‘Oh my God,’ Debs squealed, throwing her arms around his neck.
‘What’s this?’ Ryan called over. ‘Not proposed already, have you, Dad?’
‘Hey, don’t be giving her ideas,’ Theo laughed. ‘I’m just telling her my offer was accepted on the house.’
‘Brilliant,’ Ryan said. ‘I’m really happy for you.’
‘Fuck, yeah!’ Lee crowed, coming up behind Theo and Debs and wrapping his arms around their necks. ‘When do we move in?’
‘We move in tomorrow,’ Debs said, giving him a mock-stern look. ‘You can sleep on the decking – if you behave.’
‘My idea of heaven,’ he grinned.
‘What about you two?’ Theo asked his son. ‘You gonna join us?’
‘Try and stop us,’ Ryan said, winking at Lexi.
Across town, wearing sunglasses and scarves in an effort to conceal their identities, Rachel and Nicole climbed out of the back of the tatty Transit van that had brought what was left of their possessions to their new flat on the Kingston estate. They had pleaded to be moved further out, but there had been nothing else available; and now their house had been repossessed and the bailiffs had removed everything of any value from it, they’d had no choice but to accept it. The villa in Marbella was also gone, seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act, so they had pretty much lost everything apart from their clothes and the bits and pieces of furniture they’d had stored in the garage.
‘I’m going to kill myself,’ Nicole said, the tears in her eyes hidden behind the glasses as she stared up at the depressing block of flats.
‘Shut up and get inside,’ Rachel hissed, pushing her toward the communal door as the van driver and his mate climbed out and started unloading the boxes. ‘Third floor,’ she called to them before scuttling after her daughter.
As they reached the door, a woman pushed it open from the other side. Stopping in her tracks when she saw them, she smiled nastily.
‘Well, well . . . if it ain’t Queen and Princess Harvey. What are you bitches doing round here? Thought you was too good for this place?’
Refusing to be cowed, Rachel raised her chin and said, ‘Can we get past, please?’
‘Oh, you have got to be joking?’ the woman said when she clocked the van and the heap of boxes the men had unloaded. ‘No way are you moving back here!’
‘Mind your own business,’ Nicole snapped. ‘And stop blocking the door.’
‘Or what?’ the woman challenged. ‘Your daddy ain’t here to protect you now, love, so I wouldn’t be copping attitude if I was you. In fact, you’d be better off getting back in that van and fucking off while you’ve still got a chance, ’cos you ain’t welcome round here.’
She brushed past them at that, and Rachel twisted her head when she heard the Transit doors slamming shut.
‘Hey, where are you going?’ she called out when the driver and his mate opened the front doors. ‘You can’t just leave all those boxes there. I’ve paid you to bring them up to the flat.’
‘Nah, love, you only paid us to fetch ’em over,’ the driver said. ‘And think yourself lucky I didn’t charge extra for fetching youse two, an’ all,’ he added, before climbing into the van.
‘You wait till my husband hears about this!’ Rachel yelled.
Grinning, he started the engine and pulled away, sticking two fingers up as he went.
It was late afternoon by the time the van transporting Adam and several other prisoners who’d been sentenced that day arrived at the prison. Inside, he was signed in and ordered to strip, and was then searched before being escorted to the cell he’d been allocated at the far end of the first-floor landing.
Terrified by the evil looks being aimed his way as he was forced to walk through the middle of the other prisoners who were standing around in groups, Adam kept his head down and his gaze on the floor.
‘Can you lock me in, please?’ he begged the guard when they reached his cell.
‘I don’t think your room-mate would be too pleased if he came back and couldn’t get in, do you?’ the guard said, giving a sly smile before walking out.
Sinking down onto the edge of the bottom bunk when he was alone, Adam swiped at a tear that was trickling down his cheek.
‘What you cryin’ for, batty boy?’ a gruff voice asked.
Looking up, Adam’s stomach fell through the floor when he saw three men in the doorway, and his eyes widened in fear when the one at the front, a mixed-race man with huge biceps and a tattoo of a dragon on his neck, walked slowly in.
‘Welcome to Wakefield,’ the man said, grinning down at him as the others entered the cell and the door was slammed shut. ‘Theo sends his regards . . .’
OUT NOW
RUN
Mandasue Heller
When there’s nothing left, and no escape . . .
After being cheated on by her ex, Leanne Riley is trying her hardest to get her life back on track, which isn’t easy without a job and living in a bedsit surrounded by a junkie and a madwoman.
On a night out with her best friend, she meets Jake, a face from her past who has changed beyond all recognition. Jake is charming, handsome and loaded, a far cry from the gawky teenager he used to be. Weary of men, Leanne isn’t easy to please, but Jake tries his best to break through the wall she’s built around herself.
But good looks and money can hide a multitude of sins. Is that good-looking face just a mask? And what’s more, what will it take to make it slip, and who will die in the process . . .?
PRAISE FOR MANDASUE HELLER
‘Mandasue has played a real blinder with this fantastic novel’
Martina Cole on Forget Me Not
‘Captivating from first page to last’
Jeffery Deaver on Lost Angel
OUT NOW
SAVE ME
Mandasue Heller
When Ellie Fisher misses her train home one night, she has no idea that being in the right place at the wrong time will change her life forever.
That night she comes across Gareth, a young man about to take his own life, because as far as he’s concerned there is nothing left to live for. Putting her own life in danger, Ellie convinces Gareth that there is always something left. Her own life is no bed of roses, she explains, but she always pushes on.
However, good deeds aren’t always repaid the way we want. Has Ellie unwittingly put her life in danger, or is the real danger a lot closer to home?
PRAISE FOR MANDASUE HELLER
‘One of the bad girls of gritty crime,
Heller has written a blinder’
Daily Mirror
‘Thoroughly gripping’
Guardian on Two-Faced
OUT NOW
BRUTAL
Mandasue Heller
When Frank Peters’ wife Maureen dies, he feels that his once-idyllic life on the Yorkshire Moors is over. And with a daughter emigrating to Australia and a son who has his own marital problems, Frank feels resigned to a life of loneliness. Then one night he finds a frightened young woman hiding at the back of his farmhouse. She explains that her name is Irena and she was brought to this country by a man who promised her the world and then forced her into prostitution.
Frank offers her a bed for the night but it’s the middle of winter, and when heavy snowfall prevents her from leaving the next day, he’s forced to extend the invitation. But the longer Irena stays, the easier it gets for the men she’s trying to escape from to find her.
People-trafficking could just be the tip of the iceberg, and Frank has no idea what these people are really capable of.
OUT NOW
WITNESS
Mandasue Heller
She saw too much. She knows too much.
Holly Evans and her over-protective mother, Josie, are living a hand-to-mouth existence, moving constantly from one squalid dump to the next. When they move into an illegally sub-let council flat in Manchester, Holly feels settled for the first time in her life – even if she is forbidden to go out, or even open the front door to callers when her mum’s at work. What exactly are they hiding from?
Then Holly has a falling out with her best friend, and suddenly finds herself becoming increasingly isolated and alone in the world. But she is about to make a new friend in Suzie – the glamorous woman who lives directly across the road, who Holly witnesses being beaten up by her violent boyfriend. When it happens a second time it’s Holly who Suzie turns to for help, and a bond is quickly formed between the pair. But whoever Holly and Josie have been running from is about to find them, and nothing will ever be the same again . . .
You can only run for so long, and some will kill for your silence . . .
About the Author
From the back streets of Manchester to the nightclubs and penthouses of the beautiful people, Mandasue Heller, author of the top ten bestseller Run, knows the world she writes. Born in Warrington, she moved to Manchester in the 1980s, where she found the inspiration for her novels. She spent ten years living in the infamous Hulme Crescents and was a professional singer for many years before turning her hand to writing. She has three children and four grandchildren, and still writes and records songs with her musician partner, Wingrove Ward, between books.
By Mandasue Heller
The Front
Forget Me Not
Tainted Lives
The Game
The Charmer
The Club
Shafted
Snatched
Two-Faced
The Driver
Lost Angel
Broke
Respect
Afraid
Run
Save Me
Brutal
Witness
Running Scared
First published 2022 by Macmillan
This electronic edition first published 2022 by Macmillan
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
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EU representative: Macmillan Publishers Ireland Ltd,
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www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5290-2433-3
Copyright © Mandasue Heller 2022
Jacket design by Anne Glenn
Images: woman © Miguel Sobreira / Trevillion Images; background © Shutterstock
The right of Mandasue Heller to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Mandasue Heller, Running Scared
